Calkins: Padres can't let cheaters prosper

San Diego Padres' Everth Cabrera is congratulated after scoring the go-ahead run against the Colorado Rockies during the seventh inning of a baseball game on Sunday, July 22, 2012, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

/ AP

San Diego Padres' Everth Cabrera is congratulated after scoring the go-ahead run against the Colorado Rockies during the seventh inning of a baseball game on Sunday, July 22, 2012, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

San Diego Padres' Everth Cabrera is congratulated after scoring the go-ahead run against the Colorado Rockies during the seventh inning of a baseball game on Sunday, July 22, 2012, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi) (/ AP)

Go figure – a team from San Diego currently training in Arizona, and all it can see are dark clouds above.

Of course, the documents aren’t proof that the players received or used PEDs, although ESPN cites sources that say they did. But if there is any one group that, thanks to its predecessors, has earned a guilty-before-proven-innocent tag, it’s that of baseball players linked to doping scandals.

Still, even if De Los Santos and Cabrera’s innocence seems about as likely a sober Denny’s patron, let’s hold off judgment until further evidence emerges. However, if it is proven that either one of them cheated, the front office has one move – boot ‘em off the club.

Maybe that seems harsh or rash or melodramatic to you, but this isn’t the 1990s, where doping was as condoned as eye black or sunflower seeds. It’s not the 2000s, either, where players would test the new PED rules like a substitute teacher on his first day of class. In 2013, after the fallen heroes, congressional hearings and grand juries – when doping of any kind draws a mountain-sized stigma – to turn to this type of clinic is the sports version of common criminality.

And that, quite frankly, cannot be tolerated.

This is the first season for the Padres’ new ownership, and if guilt is proven, this scandal would mark its first test as well. We’re still waiting to see what kind of financial commitment the O’Malleys, Seidlers and Ron Fowler have to this club, but money isn’t the only means of changing a culture.

The truth is, Grandal should have been kicked off as soon as he got caught in November – even if he did hit .297 with eight home runs in 60 games as a rookie. And, if culpable, the same should happen to Cabrera – even if the shortstop led the National League in stolen bases last season while hitting .281 from September on.

If you look at franchises across the sports spectrum, culture is just as instrumental to success as talent. Do you hear about locker-room cancers with the San Antonio Spurs, who have not only won four NBA titles, but at least 60 percent of their games for 15 straight season? Did the World Series champion San Francisco Giants not peak after the departure of suspended PED user Melky Cabrera, who was not invited back for the playoffs despite leading the league in hitting?

Did the Lakers’ success not dwindle during the height of the Kobe-Shaq feud, just as it has dissipated with the addition of veteran diva Dwight Howard? General managers are always trying to find that missing piece to the puzzle, when the real key to the puzzle may be finding peace.

Padres fans have been waiting for a message from these new owners since they took over the team. They sat through winter meetings in which the needle seemed to suffer from paralysis, and have as much faith in the future as a Mayan did last Thanksgiving.

For years, this team was notorious for failing to keep its players. In this case, keeping them would be the failure.